


The Diary of Commander Rex

by Guardian_Rex



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 12:46:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12388365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rex/pseuds/Guardian_Rex
Summary: The Legions of Balance have been around for a while now, fighting to keep the world at peace and saving the populace from disaster.  Many people, however, don't know how it happened.  Well, it all started when...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A thing I wrote a while ago, haven't really edited it that well. Plan on posting a bit of it here and if y'all like it, I might put more effort into this

When I was ten, I got kidnapped.  Yeah, that's how this story is starting.  Who did I get abducted by?  Well, that's a bit complicated.  See, I was at the park for once.  Up in new York with my dad.  I feel like I should mention that I standardly live elsewhere, but that's my birth state, and he never left and... yeah.  Anyway, I got taken from there when he let me run around the park.  'It's good for you to get exercise' he said.  That's what everyone told me, actually, cause I hated being outside and dealing with people.  Especially up there in new York, gods is it smoggy up there.

The reason why it's complicated about who committed the crime is that... well... I don't remember.  I just remember hands grabbing me and then darkness, and then I woke up.  It was in a warehouse or something; I don't remember that too clearly.  But then, I don't remember much all that well anymore.  Apparently, I had been missing for a year.  I missed my tenth birthday, but I found my way home soon after it.  It's weird.  You'd think I'd have remembered enough to tell the officers and my mom and all, right?  Oh well.

She had me go to therapy, but I didn't really know the therapist well, so why should I talk to him?  I would have said something to Marshall, but he had developed into a prick while I was gone.  The guy she had me seeing, he started playing board games with me, cause I liked those.  But we couldn't afford for me to see him after... a month?  Maybe a month or so.  So yeah, I had no one I could talk to about that comfortably.

'why not your mom?' you must be thinking, cause that's how a lot of people would probably react.  No.  Just... just no.  End of story there.

So instead of talking to people even as much as I used to when I was eight, I started retreating into books.  They gave me as many as I asked for since I often reread the stories.  Having a bad memory means you can enjoy a good story multiple times before you need to move on.

So, how did I cope with the PTSD that we all know had to have come with the experience?  Like any kid would.  I made a friend.  He was imaginary, yeah, but he was someone I could talk to.  I named him... I named him Goliath.  I've given him last names before, but none of them really stuck.  So I just call him Goliath.  His eyes are my favorite color, magenta.  Go ahead and laugh, but magenta is the universal color of universal harmony and emotional balance.  Well, his irises were magenta.  The scrilla, the white part of your eye?  That part was dark green.

I told only my best of real world friends about Goliath, and they all asked if I was color blind or something.  Stupid and a bit insensitive, but if you're gonna be the best friend of an asshole like me, you gotta be a bit of an asshole yourself, yeah?  I just told them "No you idiot, I can see the stupidity painted all over your face in clear HD."  Well, not in so many words, because many of my friends could easily beat me up and I'm a bit too smart to insult someone who's stronger/faster/bigger than me beyond a little bit of ribbing.

But back to Goliath.  Like I said, you gotta be an asshole to befriend an asshole.  He was well aware of the fact that I hate change, but he bugged me about stuff that would require reformatting at least once a month.  "Color code your laundry instead of just dumping everything in," "Give anime a shot, regular cartoons are gettin dull," "Use the internet for more than video games on network TV sites."  I'm sure you can tell that he was making do stuff for my own good.  Many of you are thinking by now: he's just my conscience, and self-preservation put into the form of a colorful character.  Oh boy, are you some kinda wrong.  But also right, I guess.  See, Golly isn't just - by the way I call him Golly sometimes - an imaginary friend.  He's what is known as a tulpa.  A thought that comes to life.  Imagine if your imaginary friend actually started doing stuff that you didn't make them do with your imagination.  Now imagine that said imaginary friend sassed you at every chance they got because they're an asshole.  Congrats!  A basic representation of Goliath is now in your head.

Why is he important to this little story I'm telling you?  You'll find out, don't be impatient.

So, when I turned, eh, twelve?  Fourteen?  One of the two, it was an even number.  When I turned twelve or fourteen, I hit puberty.  Likely it was twelve because I remember hearing the term 'early bloomer' a lot.  So, when I hit puberty - officially anyway, I was already tall at age ten -  Goliath started suggesting weirdly specific things.  Such as taking up writing.  Now, I wasn't too strange of a child, I watched many cartoons along with the books, so naturally the first things I wrote were fanfictions.  Rather innocent ones if I do say so myself.  But then he said I should look up this thing that he overheard some of the kids at school talking about.  Sex.  How did he know that kids at school were talking about it when I didn't?  Because Tulpas that are strong can leave their parent/creator/host/whatever for short periods of time (like the most boring parts of class when you want someone to talk to without opening your mouth.  Asshole.)  So I did.  My fanfiction became considerably less innocent.  Thankfully, he stopped me from showing anyone that crap.  Not only was it inappropriate to show anyone at my age and in person, but I was also not that good, and I'm embarrassed, looking back and reading what I put down.  It's actually kind of funny.

And then he had me looking at special books in the library about languages and stuff.  Now, I was not the best learner, let me tell you.  I had to reread shit fifty times or more to get it down pat sometimes, and it was always frustrating when the end of year exams came, and I remembered jack shit.  However...

I read over the books that Goliath got me, and we learned together.  Not only that, but I was actually learning it!  I wasn't just memorizing something for the sake of a grade that I'd forget soon after, I was actually learning a new language!  Naturally, since many of my 'aunts' are Latina, I started with Spanish.  But right after I was speaking well in Spanish - passable to my aunts anyway - he dragged me over to the Latin books.

Gods do I despise the Romans.  How dare they create a language like this?  Romulus, I wish Remus had won that fight.  It was hard, and I wasn't sure why I was going along with what Goliath wanted me to do.  I coulda stopped, and he even said that several times when I expressed my frustration - something only level eight friends have actually seen me do genuinely and to the fullest extent - but for some reason... I didn't want to stop.

And after I learned Latin with him, we went to Esperanto, and then French and so on and so on.  You get the point.

Throughout all of this, he also had me working on my body.  "You can't mimic a superhero if you're not in shape like them!"  Now, who can ever be in perfect shape like a superhero?  Not even the actors who play them.  But I went along with it, thinking 'I could totally be Robin, I could totally be Robin' and shut up all you Robin haters, Dick Grayson got more than you'll ever even think of in your whole life.

Anyway...

It started with just stretching.  I didn't question it cause that was easy most of the time, and it was kinda fun doing the silly poses that Goliath was showing me.  Then the actual exercises, which were my own personal hell at the time.  A fat nerd doing real pushups?  He had to have lost his mind, right?  But just like with Latin... I didn't wanna stop doing it.  Over time, Goliath started rocking these awesome tattoos that looked like the letters of the languages that we kept learning but fused together to make up some gibberish language that the first people probably used to communicate with.  I didn't question his style choices, cause he was him and I was me, and that was okay.

But then one day I woke up and Goliath wasn't there.  I didn't feel that weird heaviness to my thoughts when he was talking to me from his little hidey hole in my head.  It was... unsettling... to say the least.  I had this guy in my head for about four years, and then he was gone.  Needless to say, I freaked out before I could even get up.  I thrashed around and flung off my covers and started looking everywhere in the house for him.  When he wasn't there, I grabbed my bike and, still in my pajama pants and nothing else, rode around the block, then further and further, searching for my best friend.  My mom found me five miles away from home, crying and shaking, and shouting for Goliath at the top of my lungs - which was and is pretty damn loud.

I cried plenty that day.  I also discovered that I was strong enough to leave a dent in a tree.  And by a tree, I mean the big thick ones in your backyard that stretch over your roof.  Yeah, I had tried to punch and kick one of those over to look underneath and find Goliath.  Fourteen or not, I was desperate.

After about two days of crying and tearing up my room and doing everything he had told me to do three times as long and hard and enthusiastically, I felt it.  That weight of having someone else's thoughts in your head.  The pressure of his presence.  It startled me straight out of my nightmare about him being taken away from me by some demons or angels or ghosts or whatever.  He looked like complete and utter shit.  I had never been so happy to see anyone or anything in my life.  I wrapped my arms around him, actually physically felt him in my arms, and hugged him as tight as I could.  "Please don't leave me ever again.  Please.  I'll do whatever you ask, I'll learn how to fight, I'll learn how to speak ancient Norse better than the Vikings, just please please don't leave me ever again, I'll figure out an equation to get to infinity, just please stay!"  I didn't let go even after I cried myself to sleep, Golly in my arms, and me in his.  After that, shit got weird.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next bit of it all. When the weird and disturbing parts kick in.

Middle school really got around to actually mattering somewhat to me.  I was smarter than the other kids, I knew that without even thinking about it.  One day, this guy Chris asked me if I was gay.  I guess some of my behaviors fit whatever stereotype teenagers were being fed by the media, as I have no idea what stereotypes were being thrown out at the time.  I thought about it a bit and said: "No, I'm bisexual."  He stated that he was too, and that was the end of that till lunch a few days later.  I was sitting across from him at lunch, surrounded by his friends but mostly just talking to Goliath as I ate.  Then he told me to kiss him.  I swallowed and checked that I was hearing him right.  He had in fact asked -  no, challenged me to kiss him.  I stared at him with a warm face and was about to decline when Goliath looked me dead in the eyes and said "I know you like the guy.  Go for it now, or he'll go into denial and never really wanna talk to you again."  So, against all my nervousness saying not to, I kissed him.  Sparks flew.

I can hear you all assuming that we were too young to have any real kissing experience, that I'm exaggerating, blah blah.  No.  First off, I had experience.  See, Goliath could trick my nervous system, tell it that something - him - was actually touching me.  So I had plenty experience with kissing.  I actually heard Chris squeak.  However, when I say sparks flew, I mean that I actually generated literal sparks of electricity that flew from my body and hit anything metal within a six-meter radius of me.  Thank gods the students used plastic and not metal forks. When I opened my eyes, pulled my hands and lips away from Chris’ flushed red face, I noticed two things immediately.  Chris’ hair looked hilarious like that, and I was hella hungry all of a sudden.  I wolfed down my food, inhaled my milk, and only when I asked him, “Can I have some of your food?” did I notice that the entire cafeteria had gone dead silent.  I wasn’t sure why, but I had a feeling it was my fault.  I shrugged and went about snatching some chicken off of Chris’ plate. “I’m gonna eat that cookie if you don’t stop me.”   See, the cafeteria had these fucking amazing chocolate chip cookies you could buy, and that was my snack along with what food I brought from home.  He knew, by now, that if I said “I’m stealing chocolate” I meant it.  He grabbed his cookie, split it in half, and shoved a piece in his mouth.

Goliath was grinning ear to ear that day.  So was I.  He didn’t tell me about my electrical trick till I was on the bus.  It then happened again, but this time on a bus.  Thankfully the seats weren’t metal, but it scared other students.  Apparently, they also weren’t fans of guys who kissed guys.

When I got home, everyone else who was let off at my stop gathered round and initiated a fight. I was happy from the kiss, excited by my apparent magical powers, and my ADHD had kicked in.  I obliged the guy who challenged me with a smile.  Now the next part is disturbing so bare with me.

As I removed my backpack and jacket, some girl grabbed my bag and tossed it.  This I did not like.  I felt my chest seize up and suddenly I was surrounded by men in dark green robes and gi.  My brain flipped to Fuck No, and I attacked like my life depended on it. One fighter charged at me, and I took a step back, driving my first into his face as soon as he was near.  Next, I kicked the woman behind me that lunged to try and get a solid hit to capture me, to take me back there, I’ll never go back never! And then followed that up with a roundhouse kick to the face.  Two men, taller than me, tried to restrain my arms but I slammed my heels down on their toes, jammed my elbows into their solar plexuses, and then spun around to knock their heads into each other.  The last two had grabbed clubs (those are sticks, what are you doing? Calm down!) and swung them at me. I ducked the attempts at bludgeoning me out cold, watching the clubs hit the other wielder's hand or face.  I then made sure they wouldn’t be having any offspring with kicks to the groin.  I spun around, still on alert, and saw the first one getting back up to run over to me and try to grab me. I pulled him into a headlock. 

Then I was being yelled at by my grandmother and by Goliath to stop and calm down for the love of god.  I looked down.  The bully that had called me out was in my arms, and I was positioned to snap his neck.  I almost killed a guy. Naturally, I screamed bloody murder, let go and jumped back.  This jump propelled me about fifteen decimeters. When I landed on my ass, Goliath sorta caught me and kept my skull from fracturing.  I had a hard time breathing for a bit.  The runes on Goliath’s arms and neck and face, they shifted to greens and blues and then I was asleep.  

 

When I woke up, they demanded answers.  “Why did you fight those kids?” “Where did you learn to nearly break bones?” “How did you jump five feet?”  Stuff like that.  My half sister began trying to make me feel like shit about breaking down in tears, but when I pointed out the fact that being kidnapped can give one PTSD, she shut her stupid mouth before any other offensive bullshit could fly free from it.  Turns out there’s some sense of, well, sense in her head.

“I don’t know what happened.  I blinked, and grandma was telling me to let go.  I guess they triggered me.”  I wasn’t up for talking. Not with them anyway. It took a bit for that to sink in, unsurprisingly.  When it did, I ate, cleaned my dishes, and headed upstairs. 

Finally away from everyone else, I stared at Goliath while grabbing my sleeping clothes.  “What the hell happened?”

“You’ll have to be more specific.”  He had switched to Esperanto, and I glared. 

“Earlier I apparently exhibited electrokinesis, and then I have an attack, and I nearly killed a guy.  What the fuck?”

“Well,” he tilted his head as we headed to the bathroom.  “It appears that you can manipulate electromagnetic energy, and all that martial arts practice paid off regarding defensive capabilities.”  My glare hardened, and he held up his hands.  “Ok, ok.  So, you almost committed manslaughter.  It’s not like it was on purpose.  And…” he grew quieter, and I strained to hear his words for once, stalling in turning on the water for the shower.  “I couldn’t help you…”

Those words scared the piss out of me because Goliath could always help me.  Whenever I had an attack, he came to me and hugged me and blocked out all the bad half memories that got triggered.  He was able to get into my head whenever he wanted, hell it’s where he was born!  Nothing should happen that could keep Golly out. For instance, he felt my fear and kept talking. 

“This was different from other attacks!  It was like webs made of tungsten had wrapped around your brain in a twelve-foot-thick trap that I couldn’t drill through.  I tried to get to you, I swear on the Styx I did!”  He looked at me as though I was gonna make him go away.  You see, Tulpas will die if they’re ignored long enough.  So, I assumed that he was afraid I’d kill him.  His purpose in life was keeping me sane, that’s why he appeared in the first place.  In his eyes, he had failed.  But… not in mine. 

I slapped him, square on the cheek, and shook my head while grabbing the soap and my washcloth.  “You idiot. I know you tried.  But right now, I wanna find out what the hell is happening to me and what I can do.”  His shock turned to joy - I could tell by the yellow highlights in his weird white hair.  “So, any ideas?”

“We’ll have to go outside of your comfort zone to do that…”  he winced when I grimaced.  “We can do that later, tomorrow or after.  For now, you just get clean and then get to bed.”

“Yeah yeah.”


	3. Chapter 3

Turns out that even when they get beat up so badly that the whole school knows what happened, some bullies are too prideful to call the police and report what happened.  Then again, since all of us are black instead of  _ just  _ me, the police would either listen to me as well or just lock all of us up.  So, when I got to school, people shot me looks and stared at my arms, as though that would allow them to see the muscle beneath the sleeves.  When Chris walked up to me out of nowhere, his hands were in his pockets, and his eyes were everywhere.  “So, um.  Is it true you beat up Onno and his crew yesterday?”

I stared at him for a couple of seconds.  How the hell did he know that?  It happened literally yesterday afternoon.  When I saw his eyes actually focus around my face, I realized I should say something.  “I don’t know his name, but yeah a bunch of people tried to get the jump on me, and I kicked their collective ass.  Why?”  The way his eyes went wide and his mouth made this little O was so entertaining that it put a smile on my face.  “Catching flies is for frogs and sticky paper, not that mouth of yours.  Other things go there.”  Now see, I was thinking of food.  If not for Golly, I’d be fat.  According to Golly, he and Chris thought I meant otherwise.  Chris turned quite the shade of pinkish red and closed his mouth.  

“You realize that Onno has never lost a fight before, right?  He’s the baddest asshole in the school.”

“So he’s the worse bully here,” I shrugged and kept walking.  “Who cares, besides the police?  It’s not like bullying gets you anywhere but jail in life.  That and the streets.”  Chris nodded along as though my words were those of the Buddha.  “Shouldn’t you be getting to class?  That’s where I happen to be heading, and I never see you in the morning.  Also, are you coming down with something?”  I put my hand on his forehead and frowned.  “Your face is warm.  You should probably go and cool down.”

“Um, yeah.”  He nodded and licked his lips before shuffling in the other direction.  But then he stopped and stared at me again.  “I’m fine by the way.  Thanks for noticing.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled him over for another quick kiss.  It lasted maybe half a second, but it seemed to do the trick of sating Chris. “Later!”  I walked away and grinned at Goliath’s laughter, switching to Esperanto as soon as I sat down.  “What’s so funny?”

“He was blushing, and you checked his fucking temperature!”  He laughed so hard his body was pushed back through someone.  I rolled my eyes at the spazz and pulled out my science text book.  Then, I pulled out another book, all on electromagnetism.  The teacher called on me for half the questions, but I could answer most of them pretty efficiently.  Having someone who’s invisible look up and tell you the question makes it easier to answer without looking.

“So if I concentrate on magnetic fields, I can create and manipulate them?"  I was excited by the idea.  Who wouldn't be excited to find out that they've got a superpower?  "Dude, there's so much I can do with this power!  I just gotta be able to tune into the magnetic fields already on the planet first so that I can get a feel for how it all works and-"

"Dude, frato, please calm down."  I looked up at Golly and quirked a brow.  "I know that you're excited about all that, but there's something plain and simple you should figure out first.  How to generate and harness that power.  We can start on that... at lunch, maybe.  After you stun Chris, we can head outside and see how to find where the energy surges from."  There was this look on his face, the small grin, the blond and purple hair, this sparkle in his eyes.  Golly was plotting something.  You know that frustration when someone you know is a little shit head is planning something, but you can't tell what exactly it is?  That's how it is with Golly, every single time.

So, I went back to reading up on the electromagnetic force to see what I could do with electrical powers.  Why?  Because knowledge makes everyone stronger, and SCIENCE is fun to me.  It happened to be the class I was excelling in the most, right in front of English class.  The day went by normally, with me frustrating everyone in math class by using the metric system instead of the imperial system.  Honestly, they both have merit in certain instances, but I prefer metric for some obvious reasons.

When I got to lunch, bought a cookie, and sat down next to Chris instead of across from him this time, I tore into my grapes like a wild animal.  After a few minutes, I noticed that Chris kept looking over at me and I grinned over at him.  "What's up?"

"You're a really good kisser, but I don't think I know all that much about you."  Chris made a good point.  He was only about level four as far as friendship went.  I shrugged and rolled my hand at him.  He cleared his throat and nudged my side.  "So, uh, think we could maybe, go on a date?  Get to know each other better?"  My conversational eye contact became straight up staring, and Golly saved me again.  See, I could process information faster than most people could when Goliath started to grab my attention away from the world.  Everything turned blue and slowed down while I listened to him talk.

"Do you really wanna give this guy that chance?  I know you, and you're real careful about letting people in.  I'm not telling you not to do it, I'm saying be careful about this decision."

"Well, I..."  I was thinking to him instead of physically speaking, since trying to do that would cut my focus and return me to normal people speed.  "I guess he's sorta cute and genuinely interested in trying this out instead of just joking about it or something like that.  I'll give him a chance, and if it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out."

"and if he hurts you, I hurt him."  Now, that may sound like a cute thing that a kid brother might say to you, but Golly was no joke.  There were times where he actually did influence the physical world.  If I had super powers, there was no way that he didn't have power too.  So, I nodded, comforted by the thought that I had Goliath as my guardian.

The other colors returned, and I saw Chris giving me this look: pupils dilated, lips turned in a half smile, his body tensing and relaxing.  He looked hopeful.  I couldn't fucking say no to that, now could I?  "Uh, yeah.  Sure, I guess we can give that a try.  Say, Saturday at three?"  Chris' entire face lit up like a Christmas tree, and his body settled on relaxed.  We decided on a park to go to, and I finished it up with a kiss.

This wasn't the chaste kiss I gave him in the hallway, no.  This time I gave him just as much as he got the day before.  Lips locked, my hands on his cheeks, and my eyes closed to enjoy just the feel of him.  There was that tingling feeling, and the world felt like it had slowed down for a second, but then Chris made a funny sound.  I liked the sound he made, so I kept kissing him.  When I pulled back, we were both gasping for air, and he had the goofiest look on his face I had ever seen in real life.

Then I caught Goliath in my peripheral vision and took note of his smug look.  "What?  He makes cute squeaking noises and faces."  Goliath didn't say a thing and instead floated off to do his own stuff.

Now, I realize that not everyone wants to hear about my first relationship.  I'm gonna skip a little for that purpose.

I wolfed down my food, he shared half of his cookie with me, and then I was out of there with a hug to him and my best friend at the time, Los.  I went out to the back where the sports fields were, and since it was barely warming up, no one was out there but me.  I had left my bookbag in the doorway so that I could get back into the school, of course.  I'm not an idiot like some superheroes tend to be.

Goliath was waiting for me in the middle of the track, where the grass was surrounded by rubber made to look like concrete.  "Frato, you got here faster than I expected you to."

"I'm not that easily attached, brother.  You know that."  I sat down in front of him and crossed my legs.  I did my little breathing exercises, breathing in all the good in my life that came from my friends and breathing out all the bad that came from blood and the past.  The world blue-shifted and I locked eyes with Golly.  "Why are you so smug?"

"Well," he shrugged, and tapped my forehead.  "It's not every day that you discover your best friend's super powers and where in his body that power appears to be surging from."  He smirked when my jaw fell open.  "Your little electrical trick happened when you kissed Chris, so I waited for you to do it again.  Then I traced the flow of energy as it surged outward, and found where it was the most built up."  I punched his arm, and he laughed at me.

"You sneaky bastard, why didn't you tell me?"  I wasn't that upset, but C'mon, that felt unfair.  "And how could you possibly know whether or not it would happen when I kissed Chris the third time?"

"Because you like him, and if I had told you my plan, it wouldn't have been a genuine kiss.  The change in variables would have risked a different result."  The way he said it, Golly sounded almost entirely scientific and logical with his explanation.  But I could see that glimmer in his eyes, and he was still smiling.  "Plus, I wanted to see your face when you realized that sparks literally flew because of your little blond basketballer."  I arched a brow at him, and he did the same.  "You didn't pay much attention when he was talking to you about sp-"

"You were spying on him."  Golly wasn't that good of a liar when it came to me.  Sure, I trust him with my life and mental health, but that doesn't mean I can't smell a lie when it's being fed to me.  "Now then, where is the center of my power, body wise?"  He grabbed the hem of my shirt and lifted it until my stomach was fully showing.  Then, he traced a circle about two and a half centimeters above my navel.  "There.  This is where the energy was the most bundled.  Now, close your eyes."

I did as instructed.  The world around me turned into darkness, and I slowly pushed away my senses.  When I couldn't hear anything, feel anything, or even taste the lingering chapstick from my kiss, I 'looked' around.  Everything was dark, lacking any substance at all, and yet I felt a slight warmth.  "Now then, search for that weird tingling sensation you felt when you were macking on your boy."  I rolled my mentally projected eyes at that and extended my sense of self, but I reached inward instead of trying to find the power outside of myself.  It wasn't very long before I felt that weird tingling, and once I had it, I reached in that direction.  I hit something, and warmth exploded all over my awareness, bringing with it an electric buzz that made me feel like I was vibrating at the speed of sound.  I grasped the energy and did my best to coax it out.

Now I know this sounds weird so try to imagine it.  Imagine those plasma ball things that you've seen on tv and always wanted but never actually got.  It's a lot like that.  You can feel the electricity racing into your fingertips, right?  That, but a hundred times more intense.  I was suddenly feeling every nerve in my body go into overdrive, and the slight breeze tickling the hairs on my arms felt like a hurricane.  The sound of cars passing by the school on the other side of the damn building felt like someone was playing a rock song on my eardrums.  The sunlight burned my eyes, and the grass and rubber ground and just every scent in the school burned my nostrils.  I was going into overload, my brain unable to handle all the information flooding it at once, when a soft magenta light soothed away the pain, and the information came in more slowly.

I felt Goliath's arms around me and knew that I would be okay.  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know that would happen, please calm down and breathe.  Breathe etulo, breathe.  That's it, in with the good, out with the bad.  You're safe, and you're okay now, all right?"  I managed to nod, and he hummed appreciatively.  Then he started humming a song that always relaxed me, but he would never teach me the lyrics or the language.

When I finally relaxed, the bell rang, and I opened my eyes.  It took a bit of blinking to get the tears out, but then when I could see clearly, I wondered if I was still in my mind.  A quick lick of my lips said no, I was very much so in the physical world.  There was a ring of blackened grass around me for a whole meter, and I could smell the stench of burning foliage.  "Did I do this?"

"Yes, and if you want to keep from getting caught, you should head inside and get to the locker room."  Golly helped me get up, and I nodded numbly.  I felt hungry and wanted nothing more than to head back to the cafeteria and inhale all of their crappy food.  On the plus side of things, I was able to summon up electricity!  Next step; controlling it!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short i know but here was a line break in my document so i just went with it

Now, my last class of the day was gym.  Luckily, it was inside because it was still really fucking cold outside, so no one saw the damage of my little awakening.  When we were changing into our gym clothes, however, I was the only guy there that changed all of his clothes.  The disadvantage of having a social disorder like Aspergers is also a benefit in some cases.  For example, not really understanding the concept of an awkward moment, but knowing that you were able to make the jerks around uncomfortable came in real handy sometimes.  Everyone was staring at me self-consciously, and while nowadays I would probably be a bit uncomfortable with people watching me strip and dress, I didn't give half of a fuck back then.

When we walked out into the gym, and I felt the tiny bit of energy I got from the apple I kept in a baggie in my gym locker burning up, I sat down on the floor and let out a sigh.  This was going to be a day.  Golly poked my arm repeatedly to get my attention, and when he had it, there was a half smile on his face.  Definitely a fucking day.

"What is it, kuratoro?  I'm busy trying to conserve the energy that I stole from an apple."

"Speaking of energy, I feel like this is the perfect time to learn how to control that power."  If I gave enough fucks, I would have punched him.  He knew it too.  "It's a great place to train your body to adapt to energy like that."

I laid on my back and stretched out all of my limbs until I couldn't reach any further.  I couldn't do shit if I didn't stretch after all.  My muscles were burning from the strain of my demands.  "What the fuck do you want me to do?"

"Reach for that core of energy again, and this time, draw it into your muscles."  He gave my head a pat and leaned on me.  "This will hurt like hell, but not in a sensory way.  Just good old 'my muscles hate me' pain."  Sometimes I wanted to reach out and strangle the little shit, but my brain child was always a step ahead of me.

Naturally, I blame the education system for that.

Now, I figured out how to get the energy to flow into my muscles and whatnot, but it felt like said muscles were literally on fire.  By the time that class was over, it was entirely Goliath pulling me into the locker room.  Now, most people didn't use the showers at gym class, but I wasn't most people.  I kept a towel in my pack for just the occasion.  True, I didn't usually bring soap, but it was just a quick rinse to get the sweat off.  By the time I was done, the bell was ringing, and the buses were there.  Never in my life have I been so glad to hear the bell ring, let me tell you.

 

So, when I got home, I went to the kitchen, and I started eating.  It turns out that using a super power burns calories.  What a surprise, right?  So I was hungry as hell.  Had I any energy to do so, I probably would have asked mom if I could get a bow and arrow, so I could go hunting for deer.  But for some reason, I feel like no one wants an untrained fourteen-year-old to have a weapon like that.  Strange thought, I know.  Anyway, I scarfed down a bunch of snacks before heading upstairs to nap.  "Dude, the power training."  I turned to Golly and lunged at him.  He passed through the kitchen table, and I crashed into it.  "Perhaps you'll be able to use the magnetic fields around everything to detect objects, like a bat does with sound."

"Electrolocation sounds kind of cool," I grunted in chagrined agreement.  "But at the same time, so does kicking your ass."  I ran around the table and tried again, only to smack into a wall.  "You and your intangibility are getting kind of irritating.  When I get my hands on you, I'm going to fuck you up."

"You're going to try."  Golly laughed, and I chased him outside.  "Now, try that energy thing again.  Strengthen those muscles!"  He flexed as he floated away and I growled.

"It's not working, you dingus!  Your teaching is flawed!"  I dimly noted that children were staring at the teenager running around, lunging at air, and half screaming at nothing in a foreign language.  Then my face hit the grass when I overestimated my reach.  "I hate you sometimes, you know that?"

"You love me, and we both know it.  It's not working yet because you're trying to push all the energy to all of your muscles.  If you just tried to focus on individual muscles, you'd overload them.  So, you gotta practice until your body naturally guides the energy to where it's needed.  Which is why you're chasing me."  I realized that I was being led around on an impossible chase and stopped.

"Ya know what?  No.  I'm not doing this today.  I'm tired, gonna cook something, shower, and sleep."  Golly saw that I was serious, shrugged, and flew to the house.  When I got back into the kitchen, still hungry, I saw that he had pulled out ingredients and measuring cups.  And that he was, in fact, making the measurements.  "What are we doing?"

"A childhood dream of yours that I think I found the recipe for."  He smiled, I smiled, and we got to work.  The end result was a kind of burger that every kid wanted growing up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ok this is all that was there in the file. If anyone wants more, please comment and tell me, I'll see about doing that.

The next day, I was getting looks again.  Maybe it was the short sleeved shirt, because for a guy my age, I had gotten some pretty impressive results from learning how to fight back and keeping in shape.  I didn’t think much of it, of course, but apparently everyone else did.  It took twice the effort to get to class on time, because not only did Chris find me for a quick chat about stuff - I told him I liked cartoons, he told me he liked sports - but the staring sheep formed walls in the halls.  Lucky me, there was still time to get into class.  Math class, however, and I slid into my seat with a groan.  “Great, I can’t sneak in some reading on electromagnetism in here.  Why do I even need to be in math class?”  I put my chin in my hand and muttered, “it’s not like we’ll ever use algebra.  As long as someone add, subtract and use a calculator for division, all you really need numbers for is money.  Which I don’t currently have.”

“Get a job then, people are hiring.”  Golly sat lotus style in front of me, on top of some guy’s head.  I snorted and shook my head.  “What about writing?  You could publish a book?”

I sat up straighter, considering that.  See, back then I was less than confident in my skills with anything, so I didn’t consider it.  But Golly usually had good ideas.  After all, if I had listened to him when i was eleven, not only would my arm not have a scar from the iron, but I wouldn’t have to wonder what mom meant by ‘ruining her iron’.  No she didn’t hit me with it, I was shoving water bottles against it, but how does melting plastic ruin an electrified plate of metal?  No ideas? Me either. 

“I mean, well.  You have a point.  I could actually write a book and make money off of that!  Far more important than algebra!”

“Who’d read your faggot ass book, slow kid?”  Now, you’re thinking  _ no one would say that in real life. _  Right?  My friend, i am a 90s kid, before 2010, everyone was a blatantly ignorant prick.  I turned around and stared at the person who had spoken, one of the idiots who had been watching me in the halls.  “You got lucky with Onno, but that’s about it.   You ain’t smart enough to do shit in life.”

Golly looked at me for confirmation and I gave a negative.   See i can talk morons down on my own.  I look this guy right in the eye and say to him: “I can at least get a guy to like me, I bet no girl would ever want to get to know your ugly self, I’m one of if not  _ the _ smartest kid in this class, I am on the english honor roll as i have been for every grade that had the system, and if you believe we need this class then you’re as stupid as stereotype requires you to be.  Think before you act, learn before you make ignorant and hateful slurs, and while I’m smart enough to get whatever job i put effort into, you’ll be lucky if you get a job at MacDonalds for the rest of your life.  I can contribute to the shitshow that is humanity, you are no more than an example of what is wrong with the species.”

Instead of listening to his response, I turned to another student and pointed directly at his face.  "You, do you think we need this class?"  He nodded, I rolled my eyes.  "You're wrong."  I turned to another kid on the other side of me.  "Do you know why we don't need this class?"  She shrugged and muttered more to herself than to me.  "I'm sorry, what?"

"Because none of us get it, and we'll never use it in life?"

"EXACTLY!"  I jammed my finger in her direction before standing up in front of the board.  You may be wondering where the teacher was.  She was standing in the doorway, from what I can remember, but she didn't come in until later.  Late teachers, what an inspiration.  "We don't need this class because we're not going to be using this class.  It should be optional to take this class, we should be obligated by the school system to do things that'll actually help us in life."

"And math won't help you later on in life?"  One girl challenged my argument, and I grinned from ear to ear, probably looked like a sociopath with a new target.

"Not what I'm saying, but thank you for asking.  That way, we learn."  I looked at one of the kids that Goliath was pointing to and she flinched.  "No, see we do need math in our lives since numbers determine everything!  But you know what we don't need to know specifically?  This shit, this shit about triangles and shapes and letters mixed with numbers.  No, what we need to know now that we're in middle school and know damn well how to add and subtract, and sure as hell are gonna have a calculator on us at near all times, isn't algebra.  We need to know what systems the government is going to be using to tax us, we need to know what kind of bills we'll be getting and how much of our regular earnings we should put away to pay those bills, we should be learning - learning the equations relevant to life, not the equation that leads to the area of a lamp!"

I pointed at another random student, his eyes wide and his mouth snapping open and shut like a deer caught in the headlights.  "Do you know what all of your rights as a minor in the United States are?"  He shook his head.  "Neither do I.  If you were at an interview and someone asked you what your skills were, would you know what to tell them right now?"  The next person I pointed to shrugged.  "What are your skills?  Tell me in detail, convince me to hire you."  they didn't say anything for ten seconds, and I moved onto the next person.  "Do you know what you want in a home?  Do you know what kind of job you'd need to get that home?  Would you be able to, at a glance, say what a car length is?"

"Fifteen feet."  Everyone's attention turned to that one guy - blond, brown eyes, shaggy hair, camo jacket - and he shrugged.  "I like cars, so I know about em."

"Ok then, that's an odd tidbit for a middle schooler to have, but ya know what?"  I gave him a thumbs up.  "That's awesome for you to know!  You could be a repairman for cars, an engineer, or a racer or something."  I waved at the whole class.  "That's another thing!  I bet none of you know about the fact that it is proven that there are a variety of different forms of intelligence.  Am I right or wrong?"

"Yeah, there's book smart and street smart," somebody said, sounding skeptical.  "So what?"

"Yes, and no.  There's math smart, word smart - like me, body smart, people smart, smart about yourself, space smart - and no I don't mean the stars - music smart, etcetera.  Who here has a good memory?  I mean, an excellent memory, like if I said the name of a place, you'd see the place in your head?"  One girl raised her hand, and I pointed to her.  "Can you describe it in words?"

"Yea-"

"We'll get back to you then, who here can draw well?  who's great at art and knows how to make stuff without seeing it first?"  Some boy raised his hand.  "Good, get out a piece of paper, a pencil, and you," I pointed to the girl.  "Describe your favorite place in your favorite park to him.  Who here is actually really good with numbers, and math, and patterns of logic and shit?  Good, calculate the square footage of the inside of the building."  They stared at me as though I had grown a second head and I grinned at them.  "What?  It's hardly different from what they want you to do here in math class.  However, my thought it more reasonable."  People were nodding their heads and I frowned at the class.  "What kind of sheep are you, to take that without question?"

Insulted, one guy who I think was a jock or just really fond of the school's team, jabbed a finger at me.  "Then why is it more reasonable, smart guy?  I thought you said you were word smart, not a mathematician?"

"Thank you!"  I pointed to the possible jock and grinned.  "Question everything, people.  Now, the reason why I'm more reasonable is because my request requires you to search for information and variables or think it out.  Plus, learning the square footage of the building will give you a better idea of how big you want your house to be when you grow up a bit more and start searching for one."

“But we’re in middle school,” one person pointed out, a frown on their face.  “Why do we need to know things we’ll forget by the time it’s relevant?”

“You need to know how to get to the answers.”  That had to be the quickest I’d ever answered a question in my life.


End file.
